U.S. Dominates Cup's Final Day

1999-09-27 04:00:00 PDT Brookline, Mass. -- Apparently, from now on when Ben Crenshaw has a hunch, we are going to have to pay attention.

Crenshaw warned us twice -- first when he said he had a "hunch" that Justin Leonard was going to make an important putt for him, then when he said he had a strong belief in fate -- before the final round of the Ryder Cup yesterday.

And sure enough, Leonard made the putt of his life, and the American team pulled off the greatest comeback in the history of this event. This leaves only one question for Crenshaw -- is there a horse you like in the next race?

Crenshaw made the most controversial move of the 33rd Ryder Cup on Saturday, when he benched hot Jeff Maggert and replaced him in the afternoon matches with Leonard. Crenshaw insisted that he had a feeling that Leonard was going to make a "big putt," but he was more like a big flop.

Leonard's putting touch, which is supposed to be his strength, was so off that he never even reached the cup on a critical putt at No. 17. And when Leonard went down by four holes to Jose Maria Olazabal after the 11th in their individual match yesterday, it looked as if Leonard would be a Ryder Cup disappointment.

"But," Leonard said, "I think Ben had a lot of faith in all of us. And he felt like I was going to go out and do something special yesterday. But I didn't picture it too often through 11 holes."

But even at that point there was a school of thought that the Europeans were still in good shape. The thinking was that European captain Mark James had intentionally stocked the top of his lineup with cream puffs.

and Tiger Woods. Perhaps, the thinking went, James was hoping the Americans would load their best players into the top of the lineup, where they would end up expending their energy on players who were probably only a slight threat to win a match anyhow.

Still, James must have expected more out of Westwood and Clarke, and Jesper Parnevik had been the hottest European on the course in the first two days. But Parnevik ran into a suddenly motivated David Duval, who had him six holes down by the ninth tee.

"It wasn't even close," said Parnevik. "They pretty much ran over us in the first six matches."

At that point, Leonard was still struggling, and nearly everyone thought that the key match of the day was going to be Mark O'Meara against Padraig Harrington. But, as always, there were some twists in the Ryder Cup plot.

O'Meara, who had been steady, fell apart, and Olazabal, who had been holding his always iffy driving in control, suddenly began to get a case of wild sprays. Olazabal lost 12, 13, 14 and 15, bogeying three in a row.

"When you win one or two holes in a row," Leonard said, "the momentum shifts. And even though I was 2-down going up 14, I felt like I was in the driver's seat."

On 15, looking at a 35-footer, Leonard drilled a putt that might have put a dent in the cup, but it clattered in. The match suddenly was all square, and Leonard was leading cheers for the American crowd.

He also had picked up a cheering section. Having closed out his match on the 13th hole, Love walked out to meet Leonard and offer what encouragement he could.

"Davis ran out on the 10th fairway as I was walking off the tee," Leonard said. "He said, 'Look, I'll leave you alone if you want me to, but this is something I can do.' I was down 3 and I lost 10, so I thought about kicking him out, but the other guys seemed to be in pretty good shape."

It soon became clear that Leonard's was going to be the match of the day. If he was able to win or halve his match, the Americans would win the Cup. If he lost, it would leave everything up to Colin Montgomerie and Payne Stewart. Montgomerie, who was ahead at the time, and ended up winning 1-up, was not the guy the Americans wanted to test.

So that is how it happened that virtually the entire American team was standing beside the 17th green when Leonard prepared to hit his birdie putt from at least 40 feet. At the time, it appeared that Olazabal had the edge on the hole. His approach had stopped just over 20 feet away, and although Leonard's shot had landed near the pin, it had spun backward, caught the down-slope and gone well beyond Olazabal's ball.

"I was trying to make the putt," Leonard would say later, "but I was also trying to get it close. That was probably my main goal."

The putt, as everyone knows by now, tracked like a champ, up the hill, sliding to the right, and falling into the hole to create one of the most unrestrained demonstrations in golf history.

The Europeans were furious. Olazabal still had his putt to tie, and the party on the green was not only delaying Olazabal's shot, there was concern that the giddy Americans might have run over the line of the putt en route. Lehman took much of the heat from the Europeans, because he was the first to run to Leonard and pick him up.

After the match was over, Lehman was asked by a European reporter if he was "ashamed of himself."

"Let me think for a second about that one," Lehman said. "What happened on 17 was unfortunate."

"I'll take the blame for that," said Leonard. "I shouldn't have run off the green. I should have just calmly walked off the green, which would have been very hard to do. So if you're looking to point the finger at somebody, please point it at me."